


A Small Measure of Peace

by setkaj



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Feudal Japan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 04:54:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13780140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setkaj/pseuds/setkaj
Summary: Fate decided from the beginning that Hinata Hyuga would be raised to be given away, whether a slave or as a wife she doesn't know.





	A Small Measure of Peace

The birth of the first child of 20 years was punishment walking hand in hand with blessing. After those years of barren mothers and sterile fathers within the clan, a child had been carried to term. Thousands took to their knees in prayer that their Lady manage to give birth safely. Within the walls of his manor, Lord Hyuga saw to it his wife worried for nothing, worked for nothing, that she only lift a finger to rest her hand over the place his child grew. Fall faded to the winter while the child grew, the clan anticipating its arrival. The fates though, always took before they gave and on the 1st lunar month of the reign of the Emperor Long Peace, during the blizzard of four weeks, a daughter was born.

On the first day, silence would befall the manor disturbed by the broken screams of a Lady of distressed mind cursing herself. The wind howled in indignation alongside her and the sun hid in shame behind crowded clouds. Her Lord Hyuga stood before his council, seal in hand as he stared at the notice in front of him. Eyes fixed forward the members held their heads high, but let their shoulders droop with melancholy. The jade piece in hand, Hiashi affixed the ink to the message sealing his daughter’s fate, never could he teach her the way of his people, and never would they know her leadership. Fate took the first child born to Hyuga in 20 years and gave her straight to Uchiha. Red marred the impeccable calligraphy and a raven took to the angry skies scroll safely clasped within its claws to a land far from its master’s. 

The second day their Lady Hyuga took to a frozen river, child in her arms as she broke past thick ice a necklace of iron draped on her figure. Even with the bite of wind and sting of hail, her silent child had never cried until her skin met with the frigid waters flowing down from the mountains. Emiko looked to her child, screams drowned out by the rush of flowing water wondering why she pleaded for life when she would never be given one. A few more steps and the water ran across her face silencing her and Emiko’s own tears fell. Rather her baby die free than live a slave, Emiko vowed to follow her shortly after. The water comforted her, numbed her to the pain of her love before hands wrenched her body from the water and her peace.

Lord Hiashi held his child for the first time on the third day, his hands shaking as he removed her from the safety of the cradle. His wife’s cries echoed from a place far from their child as she begged to see her, to hold her, to feed her. His own mother sat across the room watching her son as he held the baby with tense arms. Even frozen and half drowned the baby had survived its mother’s efforts and recovered quietly without conflict. The sun would break through the hour her pearlescent eyes met his own sharp ones, and the current attendants would break from the house to rouse their brethren to make an offering in her name. The raven would return to citizens filled with relief and thankfulness and be sent away again its message containing two characters. Hinata. 

*****************  
The Hyuga thrived in the years of their princess. The mountains gave plentiful harvest, the forest gave them meat, and the fates gave life. Hinata herself was the first, but immediately following she would have many cousins to greet her and sister years later, born under the summer sun unlike her predecessor. As she had planned with her firstborn, Emiko Hyuga left their world on the second day of Hanabi Hyuga’s life. She held both her daughters with apology in her eyes, her arms wrapped around the two and a whisper as she took her last breath. Hinata sat quietly as her mother’s hands grew cold and stiff until the cries of her sister broke the trance. Careful not to ruin her clothes, she slid herself off the bed and took her sister herself to the chair across the room patting her stomach lightly to soothe her. Akane took her granddaughters from the body that day, handing them over to the watch of the nannies before ordering the area of the house sealed away forever. 

Hinata watched the day the doors leading to her mother’s quarters were nailed shut, her mother not emerging from them. In the passing days after, she would sit in front of the door pondering her thoughts until her grandmother dragged her away. Like always, she remained silent and obeyed without fuss, her head turning back for one last glance at the corridor.

“When will she come out?” Hinata asked.

“She’s left us child, focus only on the living.”

Hinata would be dressed in white, her hair help back with a simple wooden pin. The morning of the funeral, her mother’s maid combed through Hinata’s hair instructing the young girl she’d introduced as Karai. 

“Grandmother said she’s left us,” Hinata informed the woman, gliding her fingers over the smooth wood of her hair piece.

“My lady, childbirth took her.” 

It was in the evening of the funeral that Hinata gained a new family member after her loss. The woman stood before Hinata’s family head facing the floor, a child’s hand clasped tightly in her own. The boy looked older than Hinata herself, and apparently, much like her father did at that age if what her grandmother remarked was true. To Hinata he looked angry. Angry, sad, and small. He held his own, chin raised in indignation even while his mother slouched her back in what looked like a permanent bow. When Hinata had tilted her head forward for a better look laser white eyes bore into her own and she ducked behind her father’s robes wrinkling the fabric with her grip. Still they did not move away holding both light curiosity and masked threats. Anxious, Hinata tugged nervously to signal she wanted to leave looking up towards her father. Hiashi’s hand fell to Hinata’s shoulder in silent comfort, though he also seemed to pull her back further from questioning eyes.

There was no question that this was Hizashi’s child, his demeanor, eyes, and stance all reminiscent of Akane’s estranged second son. Enraged that the woman dare intrude on that particular day Hiashi cast the woman to the outermost area of the village giving her the option of taking the boy or leaving him in the care of the main family. Hinata remembers him screaming after the lady, biting and scratching even while the male servants held him back as she went willingly arms held on either side by the guards. She had met Hinata’s eyes with sad brown ones a small smile forming on her face as she bowed before the doors slid closed on her figure. 

“Hyuga only half in blood,” Akane chuckled, “20 years we struggled yet mixed blood allows for life,” she murmured to the boy shaking her head in disbelief.  
It was only years later that Hinata learned the woman was sickly, disease ransacking her body when she risked infection of the entire main family to secure the safety of her son. Neji later told her he was allowed to give her a proper burial rather than the cremation usually required of the sick when she died. He never learned of his father’s demise.   
*****************  
The first year Hinata wasn’t allowed to meet with her new cousin, only catching glimpses of him when he moved through the halls with other manservants. Sometimes she noticed he would disappear for hours, one of the older servants scurrying around frantically searching for him. Curiosity getting the best of her, she hid from Karai one day to follow him down a private path that lead outside the walls of her protection. Pushing aside overgrown vegetation, Hinata’s weaker body didn’t allow for the same quick progress so she fell behind quickly, losing him to the forest. He pulled a large kitchen knife on her the moment she caught up, catching her pushing aside bothersome branches of a bush blocking the path. He was clumsy then, and the tip only nicked the side of her cheek, but frightening her none the less. In her surprise she had fallen back letting go of the branch allowing it to snap back into his own face. Two children just out of their toddler years weren’t exactly hardened soldiers immune to small fits of crying. Her tears dried before his and when Hinata finally gathered herself she was all apologies. Sniffling, he pushed her hands away when she began dusting him off in search of the dropped weapon. Hinata found it first and placed it back into his hands pointedly ignoring his glares.

“W-why do you c-come out here?” She asked holding her hands together, waiting for an answer he refused to give. One last sniffle and he turned heel. 

“W-wait!” she called out when he began walking away. Her cover already blown Hinata didn’t see the need for any sneaky movements and she ran after him as quickly as she could gathering the fabric of the Kosode in her hands. 

“Go away!” He shouted back walking faster.

“It’s d-dangerous, O-otousan t-told me-“

“Then go back,” He said stopping suddenly and waiting for her to catch up. 

“Niisan, we s-should g-go together,” Hinata said.

“I’m not your niisan,” he simply replied, crossing his arms glaring once again. Hinata didn’t like that look, it made him look old, like the council members she saw when she had first snuck into one of their meetings. Even refusing to meet his gaze Hinata felt the weight of it, like he was trying to pierce her with tiny knifes like the one in his hand. 

“I…I do not know your name,” She whispered. 

“Neji.”

“Neji-san, that’s r-ragweed you’re standing in.”

An itchy Neji was a meaner Neji than the regular one.

Hiashi allowed him to train with Hinata in the years following, often pairing the two to spar regularly. To his own relief his elder daughter didn’t seem much of a fighter, managing to hold her own, but without attacking back. The spars ended a lot with Hinata on her back. Whatever anger a little Neji held despaired over the years giving way to a friendship Hinata valued greatly. Rather than always end their spars quickly with attacks, he tried to teach her defense tactics and attacks when she would let him. The other boys though, were much better opponents actually giving Neji some difficulty in winning. When he moved on to practicing with Katanas and Kunais, Hanabi and Karai took her place as his sparring partner. During those years, Hinata noticed more tutors came for Hanabi, scurrying in and out in heavy robes with multitudes of yellowed scrolls, while Hinata was sent to practice things like sewing, calligraphy, and tea ceremony instead. Sometimes when the household quieted for the night, Hanabi would sneak into Hinata’s bed to tell her about great leaders of the past and hundred year old battlefield tactics her teachers taught her. Hanabi would talk until her eyes fell closed and Hinata would dream of war. She was 12 years old when she finally saw that Hanabi was training to be a leader while Hinata was training to be a lady. 

Both Neji and Hanabi came to her for reading and writing throughout the years. Their own tutors often giving them more work than they appreciated, taking up time much better spent outside according to Hanabi. Neji’s penmanship was awful and Hanabi’s Kanji reading was child’s level at best on good days. Much of Neji’s time was spent coping Hinata’s flawless characters and Hanabi reading from scrolls like, Strategy of the Weak and Successful occasionally prompting her sister for help. Their frustration would bubble up at times, not at their own work, but at Hinata’s calm demeanor, embroidering on the side while Neji’s hand stained with ink and Hanabi’s fingers stung with cuts from the paper of books and scrolls. She never missed a mistake much to their chagrin and Karai would cheerfully set down snacks Hinata kept far from their hands. 

Hinata reminded Hiashi of Emiko more and more as she grew. She learned at her own pace, but her work was always hundreds times better than that of those who learned swiftly. She moved like a ghost, seeming to glide above the ground rather than walk on it. Her voice was soft and she remained immaculately composed at all situations while her sister was prone to rampage on occasion. During days of prayer she seemed to emulate the otherworldly goddesses and saints they worshipped, graceful to the core as she moved with precise practice. Hanabi considered it a success when her kimono remained unstained. 

Hinata spent a great deal of time sitting quietly beside her grandmother as she drank tea and listened to Hinata play whatever instrument she was currently interested in. She would rest her hands easy when the elder woman began lecture, speaking of the proper etiquette of a lady in the South. Hinata never understood why a Northern lady would learn that. 

“You’ll serve the Old Madam there when the time comes.”

At fifteen Hinata truly learned what was to become of her. Her father sat across her with tired eyes while he explained what little he knew. In the time long before his and hers, the Hyuga had been cast to the North as punishment for treason against the Emperor. A daughter born to the main house would be given in tribute to the Uchiha clan as reward for their clan head discovering the traitor. For marriage or slavery, the position was never specified nor ordered. Every child since would be born male, until the days when the clan went barren. 

On her sixteenth birthday, the southern palanquin came for her, its attendants standing with emotionless faces beside guards marked with a flamed emblem. A plain carriage behind held various silks and jewels Madam Hyuga forced the guards to accept. That morning, she walked hand in hand with Hinata, escorting her up to the door. 

“No Uchiha will make you their slave,” she murmured, while she clasped Hinata’s fingers even tighter, “Even death suits a Lady better than servitude.” 

Hinata sat numb while the palanquin moved, a vile between her fingers, pressed with her grandmother’s blessings. Karai sat across, tear-stained face blank while she swayed to the movement of the palanquin. Paper windows allowed for little light as they continued their journey without delay. During periods of rest both Hinata and Karai’s heads would be veiled. Led by grumpy old maids to do their business as usual. Hinata never saw a hint of the outside world during the week that followed. After all, no clan would have use for a slave that knew the path to freedom. As the days passed both girls discarded their heavy overcoats and fur shawls, fans waving quickly inside the heat of their prison. Karai spoke to complain of the conditions her high born lady suffered, receiving a swift slap to the face. A broken finger later and Karai was reduced to following being the party blindfolded and tied while the others ridiculed her opponent as he cradled his left hand. 

The old maid led Hinata down as usual on the last day of travel. Old hands clasped hers tightly as she led her to a seating area while everyone rested. Unlike most days the chatter was loud and rambunctious, all eager to be done with their travel. The old maid coughed loudly, complaining of cold weather and lack of accommodation, eyes seeming to bore into Hinata’s back where she remained covered. An elegant ghost draped in white. Only once had she heard of a Hyuga wandering outside the boundaries of their confinement, most remaining hidden within the arms of the mountains. For a time the old maid herself wondered if they still existed, an illustrious clan, said to be blessed by the heavens themselves. How funny that they were their own downfall. If she could just have a glance at this ghost of affluence, perhaps her inferior being would be blessed. Her body moved of its own will, step by step, towards the girl hand outreached. 

The only sound heard was the collapse of an old woman, fingers clasped tightly around white silk, and staring into white eyes she had only heard about. Hinata’s first thought was of green, old maid long forgotten.


End file.
